# Favorite (steamy) love poem. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 22, 2010, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978 "2010-01-22T07:45:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/1 "2010-01-22T07:45:31Z")
What’s your favorite steamy (sexy) love poem? I’ve got to go with Rumi’s _Like This._ It’s hard to imagine that it’s survived over 800 years and, in my opinion, hasn’t been topped yet. [Like this](http://www.khamush.com/love_poems.html#IfAnyoneAsksYou) ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/2 "2010-01-22T10:43:08Z")
The problem with a steamy poem is that poetry, in my view, should suggest not show. That being said my favourite poem in english is [“To his coy mistress”](http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/coy.htm). Neruda has some pretty steamy one but, alas, he wrote in spanish. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/3 "2010-01-22T14:00:57Z")
Definitely “To His Coy Mistress.” ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/4 "2010-01-22T14:40:28Z")
Perhaps not “steamy”–but highly interesting to me is “Elf Breath” in Michael McClure’s _Jaguar Skies_. The poem starts Elf Breath""]on this page & concludes on the next. Perhaps because I read McClure’s essay on how his experimentation with psilocybin led him to explore the Anglo Saxon language. Back in the days when Beat was becoming Hip. (And he’s still working with words, his Black Irish hair turned white.) ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/5 "2010-01-23T01:31:13Z")
D.H. Lawrence’s [Love on the Farm](http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology/Lawrence/Love.htm). Between the imagery and the last line…I need to open a window. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/6 "2010-01-23T02:22:53Z")
This one does it for me: [Feasting](http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2004/11/09) ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/7 "2010-01-23T02:32:16Z")
e.e. cummings - i like my body when it is with your body > [@](#): > > . . . > i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz > of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes > over parting flesh … And eyes big love-crumbs, > . . . Also the last bit of Ulysses is quite poetic and erotic: > [@](#): > > ..I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/8 "2010-01-23T22:59:16Z")
And speaking of ee cummings, [she being Brand.](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/she-being-brand/) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-steamy-love-poem/525978/9 "2010-01-23T23:35:32Z")
There was a young parson named Bings Whose mind was on Heavenly things But his loins were afire For a boy in the choir With a bottom like jelly on springs!